WOOP it Up to Achieve Your Health Goals

Do you find yourself getting stuck accomplishing your health goals? Achieving and maintaining a healthy lifestyle can be challenging. Whether you are working alone, with a health coach, or with another health professional, it’s important to design realistic goals and a plan that can help you achieve your desired outcome. But, what about navigating the obstacles that get in the way? Here’s where the WOOP technique developed by psychologist Gabriele Oettingen can help you stay on track to achieve your health goals.

What is WOOP?

WOOP stands for Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan. It is a simple yet effective method that can help you visualize your goals and identify potential obstacles to achieving them. Athletes, teachers, organizations, and individuals use this tool to successfully work towards their goals.

Step 1: Identify Your Wish

The first step of WOOP is to identify your wish or goal. This can be anything related to your health, such as losing weight, eating healthier, lessening pain, or exercising more frequently. It is important to set a specific and realistic wish. Using WOOP requires that you look at your goals and not take on competing or conflicting goals at the same time.

Step 2: Visualize the Outcome

The next step is to visualize the outcome of achieving your wish. Imagine how you will feel once you have accomplished your goal. This can be a powerful motivating factor and can help you stay committed to your wish.

Step 3: Identify Potential Obstacles

Now comes the critical step of identifying potential obstacles that may hinder you from achieving your goal. These can be internal (e.g., lack of motivation or willpower) or external (e.g., time constraints or financial limitations). It is important that you are honest with yourself and identify all possible obstacles.

Step 4: Create a Plan

The final step is to create a plan to overcome the identified obstacles. This can involve breaking down your goal into smaller, manageable steps or finding ways to work around external constraints. It is essential to have a specific and actionable plan in place. This work can be super energizing as you work to address a specific plan and continue to refine it to address the things that stand in your way.

What’s important is that you take small steps to ultimately make giant leaps in your health habits, which I covered in a previous blog.

Conclusion

Why use WOOP? Using the WOOP technique can be a game-changer to achieving your health goals because it not only identifies your desired outcomes, it helps you to get there. You can practice the WOOP technique by going here.

Remember, health and wellness is a journey and not a sprint.  WOOP supports individuals in identifying the obstacles that can get in the way and developing a plan to address them.

By following the four simple steps, you can gain clarity on your desires, stay motivated, and overcome potential obstacles. Remember to be kind to yourself and celebrate each step towards your goal. You got this!  So WOOP it up to achieve your health goals!

If you need help in identifying potential triggers of your health problems or identifying a realistic approach and plan to accomplish your health goals, get a free discovery call.

References:

Oettingen, Gabriele. (2014). Rethinking Positive Thinking: Inside the New Science of Motivation. New York, New York. Penguin Random House.

https://woopmylife.org/en/home